ANTHRAX Guitarist SCOTT IAN: Doing Spoken-Word Shows Still Feels Like 'Such A New Thing For Me'

Sweden's CrankItUp.se recently conducted an interview with ANTHRAX guitarist Scott Ian. You can now watch the chat below.

Speaking about his recent European "Speaking Words" spoken-word tour, Ian said: "I always look at this as kind of like a… it's such a new thing for me, still, because even though I'm on tour and this is, like, my third tour. I did a tour of the U.K. and I did a tour of the States. Now I'm on this tour. I did some shows in Australia. But still, it's all been over two and a half years. So it still feels very new to me when I'm doing these shows. But I do feel that the show quickly gets better much faster now. Like, from the first show on this run, which was the first show I had done in a year, when I started in Finland last week… I hadn't done it in a year. And I don't warm up, I don't rehearse for this; I just do it. And I was really nervous about the first show in Finland, and then I got on stage, and it was, like… I thought it was the best show I ever did. So I was, like, 'Wow! I feel really good about this.' And then each show even got better and better. I find things I had problems with before, like pacing — sometimes I go too fast, or I miss things, or I forget things — I just feel like the more shows I do, the better it gets. You would hope that would be the case, but I'm actually seeing the results. So I'm feeling really good about it."

Ian's autobiography, "I'm The Man: The Story Of That Guy From Anthrax", came out on October 14, 2014 via Da Capo Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group.

Released on November 13, 2014 via Megaforce Records, Ian's "Swearing Words In Glasgow" DVD is a full performance recording, filmed towards the end of his "Swearing Words" tour in Glasgow, Scotland, and was funded by a wildly popular PledgeMusic campaign, which surpassed its goal with the help of gracious and dedicated fans.

"Swearing Words" is an honest look at the insane life that Scott has led for the last 31 years, the people he's met, and the events that coincide.

Ian previously stated about the "Speaking Words" tour: "I'm calling it 'Speaking Words' because the pretension of saying I am doing a 'spoken-word' tour is too much to bear. This ain't no poetry reading. This isn't an evening of sensitive discourse. It's an evening of ridiculous truth. It's me talking (swearing) about this insane life I've led over the last 31 years, the people I've met and the shit that's happened. And when I'm done swearing, you can ask me anything you want, the floor is yours."

In an interview with Decibel magazine, Ian stated about the "Speaking Words" tour: "It's something I've always wanted to do, and I've always been trying to figure out how can I do this, how would I ever make this possible. I've seen [Henry] Rollins do it all these years; I saw Rollins, maybe on the first time he ever did a tour I went to see what it was going to be about. I mean, I am a huge fan of Rollins' music and I had read all his books at the time, so I really knew that he had a point of view and something he needed to express and he did it really well. It's something that I always wanted to do and I finally had the opportunity."

Asked where he got the material from and whether it was something that he had sketched out in advance, Scott said: "I am certainly not a joke writer nor am I a stand-up comedian, but I just feel that my life is, in so many ways, ridiculous. The last 32 years of my life spent in a metal band; I've got so many stories, whether it's shit that I've done, people that I've met, stories that I know from other people … I've kinda been in this bubble for so long. I sit around in bars with my friends and I'll get around to telling stories, as we all do, and most of my friends are in this industry or connected to it somehow, so we all have stories and we all sit down and tell stories to each other and crack each other up. I always felt that people need to hear this stuff. This shit is hilarious. It's just a really fun thing for me to do, to relate to people on that level. That's what it is. That's what the material is; it's shit that I have been through in my life."